Penguin To Publish Spitzer Book

A book about the rise and stunning decline of the former New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, co-authored by the makers of a book and documentary about the fall of Enron, is being published by Penguin Group (USA), Penguin imprint Portfolio announced Wednesday.

Peter Elkind, who helped write the 2003 best seller "The Smartest Guys in the Room," is collaborating on the Spitzer book with filmmaker Alex Gibney, who co-wrote and directed the 2005 documentary based on Mr. Elkind's book. Mr. Gibney and Mr. Elkind will also work on a documentary about the law-and-order Democrat who resigned last month following allegations about his connection to a $5,500-an-hour call-girl ring.

The book and film, currently untitled, are expected to come out around the same time, but no release date has been set.

"We know Peter to be a spectacular investigative reporter, just spectacular," the founder and publisher of Portfolio, Adrian Zackheim, told the Associated Press. "This is not a quickie book. He's going to do what he does best: come back with a very, very satisfying, in-depth, and complicated story."

Mr. Elkind is a senior writer for Fortune magazine and in 2004 wrote a cover story about Mr. Spitzer, who was then New York's attorney general. Mr. Zackheim said he's not expecting Mr. Spitzer to cooperate with the current project, but added that "it's not inconceivable."